1. Field of Art
The disclosure generally relates to the field of providing network services, and particularly to identifying appropriate network services for a client computing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile computing devices are often used to perform a variety of tasks by sending and receiving data over cellular networks. However, cellular networks often do not have the capacity or throughput speed to execute user requests in a timely manner. Therefore, mobile computing device users experience slow download speeds when viewing content retrieved over a network. Similarly, videos streams requested on mobile computing devices over cellular networks are often interrupted during playback to enable loading and buffering of the video stream. As such, users are often dissatisfied with a user experience provided by the mobile computing devices. Additionally, large downloads or video streams use significant network resources and often cause a network to slow down further. As such, network carriers generally want to limit the usage of network resources when appropriate.
In one instance, network carriers install network equipment in-line or in a carrier's network to limit usage that may significantly sap network resources. In other instances, the in-line equipment may provide different bandwidth or speed to certain mobile computing devices based on their capabilities or a contract with the network carrier. In other instances yet, the in-line equipment may be used to send user requests to an optimization server wherein an optimized video stream may be provided to the user and wherein the optimized video stream uses fewer resources on the cellular network. However, in-line equipment is expensive and must be installed by network carriers. Additionally, software executing on mobile computing devices may not be aware of when in-line equipment is redirect requests made on the network. As such, software programs are unable to provide a user experience that is tailored to a mobile computing device's network capabilities.